1. We went to the Roman Forum/Colosseum 3 days in a row
A. First day was with our photo class. We met at the Colosseum in the early morning to shoot and practice depth of field. Jason got frustrated because he would get a good idea for a picture, take it, and then everyone would see him take it and flock over to try the same picture for themselves. So he ended up deleting a lot of his photos because they "weren't original". It was fun to have a structured class, but we decided to head back the next day to have a little more freedom.
B. The second day we met our Mythology professor at the Roman Forum with a few other students for an exclusive tour of the mythological aspects of the Forum. Unfortunately when we got to the front gates there was a sign saying the Forum was closed from 8:30-1:30. Our teacher talked to the guard and found out that they were having a "workers meeting", basically an excuse for the workers to sleep in after a late night. Typical Italian. So Jason, Tom, and I checked out the Capitoline Museum in order to pass the time. It was really great because there are tons of old statues of Greek gods and demi gods. We then met back at the Forum at 12 and had a really great tour of the Forum, well worth the wait. Afterwards, we had lunch at Cafe Cafe again, and the food was still excellent.
C. The third and final day, Jason and I thought we could get back into the Colosseum and Forum from the previous day's tickets, but apparently they were one time use only. But we managed to get through anyways and explored the Palatine Hill which conveniently connected to the Forum. We took a lot of pictures which are up on flickr. It was later in the day and it was really cool to see the Forum in the light of coming dusk.
2. Plans
A. Spring break in Sicily
B. Tomorrow we're going into the Sistine Chapel/Vatican City before it opens to the public in order to see the Sistine without the thousand tourists. We're also going to the Vatican Gardens and the Vatican Museums. Basically a day at the Vatican.
C. Saturday we are going to Assisi, the hometown of St.Francis.
D. Next weekend we are going to Pompei and other archeological sites with our Roman History teacher.
E. We have every weekend from here until the end of the semester planned with places to go including Naples, Florence, Siena, Milan, and Venice.
3. Italian
A. We got a call from a student at the University of Rome who is interested in doing a language exchange with us, unfortunately he is finishing up his degree and is really busy studying. But he's supposed to be done by the beginning of March, so that's good news.
B. Intermediate Italian is going really well. The teacher is so good and clearly really loves her job. So it definitely makes up for the hell that is Beginner Italian.
4. Stupid Americans
A. So there was a talk that the student relations guy at Temple put on with some of his Italian friends and Temple students. It was supposed to open up some discussion about differences between Italy and America and to allow Temple students to talk about stereotypes and misconceptions about Italy. We didn't attend, but I heard about some of the comments from my roommate.
B. One girl went on and on about how Italians are so rude, when asked in what ways and how she replied that when she arrived in Rome, nobody offered to carry her bags for her and she was forced to carry her bags in the airport, to the taxi, and then up to the residence. My roommate correctly responded that it would be rare if someone ever offered to do that in America.
C. One person complained that Italy should globalize and have a bunch of fast food restaurants and department stores. Yeah, clearly that's really working out for us Americans...
D. Another person complained that there are too many rules in Italy (wow news to me!). They said that you have to stand in a cafe to get your coffee, you can't sit or take it to go (you can sit it just costs extra). They also mentioned that you have to look both ways when you cross the street otherwise you'll be hit by a car (um did we not all learn that in 1st grade???). And I think that rule applies in America as well...
E. Basically these kids here are a joke. Really dumb, self centered, and ethnocentric. I think it would have drove me crazy to be at that discussion. The only benefit of knowing all these stupid people is being able to fully value my private school liberal arts education. But its really frustrating when you're surrounded by a bunch of people who don't want to understand or learn about the culture and the people and instead want to make Italy into a second America. I just don't understand why they bothered coming here, maybe its the lower drinking age.
To end on a more positive note, I'd like to share some of the things Jason and I have been drinking while in Italy. I personally like Prosecco (Italian champagne), Sambuca (licorice liquor), and Grappa with Chocolate. Jason likes 2 euro Sangria and Melon Vodka which has been difficult to find. The Italians enjoy a drink after lunch which is called a caffe coretto (corrected coffee), basically coffee with liquor, usually grappa but I had one the other day with Sambuca. Its delicious. So if you're bored with American stuff, try one of these out!
1 comment:
hi,
I was reading a friend's blog about studying in Rome and the website suggested yours among a few others. I'm, by default I like to say, a Temple student. I go to the art school which is a very separate entity with great people but now they've moved us to main campus, North Philadelphia. Besides the very real possibility of getting mugged and/or shot (brotherly love?) I'm not thrilled to be with the main campus kids, like I am here in Rome.
Anyway, I'd have to agree with you to a point. Maybe even up to 60% of the Temple kids here have questionable motives. Yeah, don't judge a book by its cover but just living in a residence with them is enough- they get shit-faced drunk to loud bad rap music every single night of the week keeping me awake. It's not a dorm, there are Italians living in this residence but they don't seem to care. There are girls in my art history class that I would like to do any number of terrible things to when they stand in the Roman Forum and say things like (this is very close to word-for-word, I remember it well b/c I was livid), "Ugh. I hate history. It's so boring. I mean, I guess cuz I'm in Rome I should learn some of it but like...I don't want to be here. This is boring. Can we leave yet?". She was upset because her Uggs were wet, for one thing, and spent most of the class trip texting. And there are equally annoying guys. What's scary is that they're business, economics, and education majors.
But not everyone is like that. There are some good people here, I swear. And most of us were like, "Wait what did she say?!" when that girl complained about no one helping her with her bags.
I don't know if I started writing this with the intent of defending Temple and the apes that attend it...I try really hard to avoid hating the self-centered, inconsiderate, ungrateful, infantile, naive, and spoiled kids...but that's clearly not working. Whatever, I've been spending most my time exploring Rome on my own.
About the racism thing, I really can't say. I did have a guy tell me he knows I'm American partly because of my skin color. I guess I have real light skin with the slight olive undertones of the German/British mutt that I am whereas the Italians seem to have more brown/bronze in their skin. I do get stares but not to the extent I was told to expect. I also don't get special attention from men though I stay low key- jeans and a dark, blank t-shirt with a peacoat usually. A lot of my female friends have stories about being followed for 30 minutes or more by italian men despite saying no several times.
A teacher of mine said that there's an unspoken rule for women-that if a woman passes the threshold into an Italian man's house or apartment, she forfeits the right to say no. Apparently a court would not back her up on rape charges. The teacher also said there's a law still in the books saying it can't be rape if the woman was wearing tights pants because she had to have helped him take them off her. Obviously those things may or may not be true. But I would say if they're still behind in women's rights (although even the US only just made a big step toward equal pay, not that we don't have racism), there's probably still racism too.
A girl at the round table discussion mentioned feeling a weird vibe a couple times, which she thought was because she's black- that they treated her as if she sold sunglasses for a living. All the Italians there denied it. But who wants to admit their culture is racist? (if she was right) I think Italians do tend to act as if black, Indian and, you're right probably, Southeast or darker-skinned Asian people aren't there, even when just on the metro. I'm not Asian but I think I've picked up that vibe.
What university are you with here?
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